1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to unmanned aerial vehicles and, more particularly, to small unmanned aerial systems with autonomous flight, remote sensing, and data communication capabilities.
2. Related Art
There is a need in the oil and gas industries for continual monitoring—whether periodic or constantly on-going—of pipelines for maintenance issues such as liquid or gas leakage. Such maintenance monitoring may give rise to a need to travel along the path of the pipeline and, for example, collect samples of air in the path to determine whether there is any undesired gas leakage. Other monitoring methods may include capturing optical and thermal images of the pipeline along its path for identifying the existence of any potential leaks or ruptures of the pipeline. Despite the fact that in-situ investigation of leaks or other health hazards and monitoring the health of the environment along the pipeline may expose field operators or other pipeline survey personnel to harm, application of automated systems to pipeline monitoring has been very limited due, at least in part, to the extensive length of a typical pipeline and the limitations imposed by the resulting requirement of long travel time and the high signal bandwidth needed to survey and report the status of the pipeline on a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week basis.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, in which the showings therein are for purposes of illustrating the embodiments and not for purposes of limiting them.